He told the daily Covid-19 briefing that the National Public Health Emergency Team was examining whether they should be used by the “general population” as well as in healthcare settings.

Dr Holohan stressed that there would be a need to protect supplies of healthcare grade masks if that policy was to be implemented.

“If we were to introduce such a measure, we would have to be very clear that we want to protect healthcare grade masks of all kinds for use in healthcare settings or for use by people who have been recommended to wear masks by their doctors, that does happen for some people,” he said.